focused-ultrasound
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Nudge
Nudge is a San Francisco neurotechnology company building non-invasive, whole-brain interfaces powered by focused ultrasound. Founded in 2024 by Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam alongside Jeremy Barenholtz and Quintin Frerichs, the company aims to stimulate and image deep brain circuits with millimeter precision - no surgery required. Its first human-ready system, Nudge Zero, is being used in research studies today, with a long-term goal of a headphone-like consumer device that lets people shift their brain state - sleep, focus, mood, habits - at the press of a button. Nudge raised a $100M Series A in July 2025 led by Thrive Capital and Greenoaks.
Attune Neurosciences, Inc.
Attune Neurosciences is a San Francisco-based, clinical-stage medical device company building what it calls the first wearable, non-invasive focused-ultrasound system for deep brain therapy. Its investigational headband, ATTN201, uses low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) to reach precise deep-brain targets - like the central medial thalamus - while recording EEG and head movement, aiming to treat sleep and wake disorders, depression, addiction recovery, and other neurological and psychiatric conditions without drugs or surgery.
Sound Blade Medical Inc.
Sound Blade Medical is a Halifax-based medical device company building a handheld, ultrasound-guided histotripsy device - a tool that uses focused sound waves to mechanically liquify and destroy targeted tissue from outside the body, with no incision, no heat, and no radiation. Spun out of research at Dalhousie University and Nova Scotia Health, the company is led by veteran medtech executive Neil Barman and inventor Jeremy Brown, and closed an oversubscribed US$16.5M Series A in January 2025 to push the technology toward the clinic.
Neil Barman
Neil Barman is a physician-executive and the Chief Executive Officer of Sound Blade Medical, a Halifax-based startup building handheld histotripsy devices that use focused ultrasound to liquify tissue without heat or incisions. A Stanford- and Northwestern-trained M.D., he has spent more than two decades turning early medical-device science into approved therapies, including a pivotal role in the first FDA approval of ultrasound renal denervation at ReCor Medical and early roles at companies later acquired by Medtronic and Stryker. He stepped up from COO to CEO at Sound Blade in July 2025 to steer its non-invasive surgery platform through clinical development.